It is the kind of question that, for any left-back not belonging to the top band of the football spectrum, could prompt an instinctive tightening of the jaw. How, Patrice Evra was asked, would he set about stifling the one-man source of persecution to opposition defences otherwise known as Lionel Messi?

Except Evra has been here before, preparing for the attacker whose former coach, Enrique Domínguez, once said was capable of "doing things with the ball that defy the laws of physics". Messi's presence might decorate the Champions League final with one of the wonders of the modern game but there will be no sense of inferiority from the man who is assigned to mark him. Evra is playing in his third final in five years and the Manchester United defender does not mean to sound big-headed when he says it is now legitimate to think of himself as "the best left-back in the world".

Messi might even attest to the same after Evra played his part in preventing Barcelona from scoring in both legs of last season's semi-final, despite all the ­agitation the heir-apparent to Diego Maradona caused the Old Trafford crowd. It does not automatically mean Evra will stifle Messi again in Rome next Wednesday but it does imbue confidence.

"Last year was last year and this is totally different but I was very proud of myself after that semi-final because I knew I'd done my job," he says. "I won't forget that, but this is a new year. Is he a better player now? Well, he's scored more goals this season and probably been more consistent so maybe it will be even tougher. The thing against Messi is, you can stop him 10 times but if he passes you once and scores, everyone will say 'Oh, Evra had a poor game'. That's why you have to be focused for the whole game against him."

Yet Evra will not be doing anything different from usual. "Every day in training I am up against [Wayne] Rooney, [Dimitar] Berbatov, [Cristiano] Ronaldo and [Carlos] Tevez, so I know what to do against big players. I'm not the kind of person who loses any sleep about it. I just need to attack, play my own game and enjoy it."

The best left-back in the world? Before anyone gets the wrong impression, Evra is not a stereotypical show-off. He remembers his debut, a 3–1 defeat at Manchester City in 2006, as like being "in a tumble drier" because he was so taken aback by the pace of the game and he is reluctantly willing to accept Harry Redknapp's judgment that Aaron Lennon has had the "hoodoo" over him this season.

In keeping with most athletes at the top of their profession, however, he is aware of his own ability. "Every year I think I have improved. I have been named in the world's best XI twice and the Premier League XI twice. Things like that make you believe.

"I had one bad game in the Carling Cup final and suddenly people were saying I wasn't the same player. I thought to myself, 'I've played for Manchester United for three years, I've had one bad game, and they're saying this?' So I was actually happy with the criticism because it made me believe that, yes, I am the best left-back in the world.

"When you've had one bad game and people are criticising you, it actually makes you proud. I said after that 'OK, we will see'. The criticism helps you become stronger. But it's not easy. You can be the best left-back in the world but I know that if I play badly in the final people will say I'm the worst."

Barcelona, one imagines, will have noted the way Lennon has repeatedly got past him this season but, on the flipside, also consider the manner in which Evra completely eliminated the threat of ­Arsenal's Theo Walcott in both legs of the Champions League semi-final. "I think I have shown the people who criticised me my real form again."

As for his brief lapse earlier this year, Evra attributes it to the four-match ban he got from the Football Association – "an injustice," he vehemently declares – for clashing with Chelsea's groundstaff at the end of the visit to Stamford Bridge in April last year.

"It cost me 10 games because when I came back from the ban I was maybe not in the best condition and got injured. In the end I had two months out. It still hurts when I talk about it now and if you ask me in 10 years I will tell you the same.

"[Sir Alex] Ferguson said to me it was the worst decision he had ever known. It's still in my heart, I still have pain thinking about it. That ban killed me.

"But I'm back to my best now – and I will need to be, against Messi."